Glendale Must Halt Drug Testing

A Los Angeles Superior Court judge on Tuesday ordered Glendale to immediately halt its drug-abuse screening program for job applicants and city employees seeking promotions.

In a suit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union, Judge Jerry Fields ruled that Glendale’s drug- and alcohol-testing program violates both the right to privacy provision of the state Constitution and the right against unreasonable searches and seizures provided in the U.S. Constitution.

“The program is a wholesale, indiscriminate test that . . . is over-broad,” Fields said, noting that the testing is not based on any probable cause or suspicion of wrongdoing.

Glendale officials said they will appeal the decision.

The city’s drug-testing policy, which requires testing of all city job applicants and nearly all candidates for promotion, is believed to be one of the most comprehensive in the nation. Most cities with screening programs test only applicants for high-risk public service positions such as police and firefighters and heavy-equipment operators, said Joni Culp, a researcher for the League of California Cities.

The city adopted the mandatory testing program after a pilot drug-screening program in 1985 found that 20% of new applicants tested were abusers. John F. Hoffman, Glendale’s personnel director, said 5.3% of about 500 applicants tested last year were identified as drug or alcohol abusers. He credited the stiff testing program with scaring off substance-abusers.